Consequences of a Functional Account of Information

Mann, Stephen Francis

doi:10.1007/s13164-018-0413-4

Cited by 8 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Consider again smoke and dark clouds as cues. They are arguably informative only relative to a receiver that is (a) sensitive to them and (b) can, at least in principle, exploit them [13,27,[56][57][58]. A spatiotemporal correlation between smoke and fire cannot qualify as information to a receiver that is deprived of vision and olfaction.…”

Section: (D4) Receiver Dependencementioning

confidence: 99%

Information in Explaining Cognition: How to Evaluate It?

Fresco

2022

Philosophies

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The claims that “The brain processes information” or “Cognition is information processing” are accepted as truisms in cognitive science. However, it is unclear how to evaluate such claims absent a specification of “information” as it is used by neurocognitive theories. The aim of this article is, thus, to identify the key features of information that information-based neurocognitive theories posit. A systematic identification of these features can reveal the explanatory role that information plays in specific neurocognitive theories, and can, therefore, be both theoretically and practically important. These features can be used, in turn, as desiderata against which candidate theories of information may be evaluated. After discussing some characteristics of explanation in cognitive science and their implications for “information”, three notions are briefly introduced: natural, sensory, and endogenous information. Subsequently, six desiderata are identified and defended based on cognitive scientific practices. The global workspace theory of consciousness is then used as a specific case study that arguably posits either five or six corresponding features of information.

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Section: (D4) Receiver Dependencementioning

confidence: 99%

Information in Explaining Cognition: How to Evaluate It?

Fresco

2022

Philosophies

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“…Different accounts of functional information have recently been offered (e.g., Rathkopf, 2017 ; Mann, 2018 ), mainly in biological contexts, but Fresco et al (2018) offer a possible conceptual framework that may be suitable for explaining KH and will, thus, be the focus of our discussion. “Functional information” here means any difference in the external or internal milieu of a system that has made a systematic, causal difference to the agent’s goal-directed behavior.…”

Section: A Conceptual Framework: Functional Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We propose a hybrid view: the type of things we know when we know how to F is manifested through multiple informational relations, that can, but need not , be propositional. On our proposal, which builds on the conceptual framework of functional information (see, e.g., Fresco et al, 2018 ; Mann, 2018 ), practicing successful courses of action leads to the elimination of other possible courses of action, and to stabilization on some “optimal” course(s) of action. On this view, information is a triadic relation between a receiver, a difference-maker, and a state of affairs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Information in Knowledge-How

Najenson

Fresco

2021

Front. Psychol.

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Knowledge-how is the kind of knowledge implicated in skill employment and acquisition. Intellectualists claim that knowledge-how is a special type of propositional knowledge. Anti-intellectualists claim that knowledge-how is not propositional. We argue that both views face two open challenges. The first challenge pertains to the relationship between informational states and motor variability. The second pertains to the epistemic function of practice that leads to skill (and knowledge-how). The aim of this paper is to suggest a general conceptual framework based on functional information with both intellectualist and anti-intellectualist features. Our proposal, we argue, avoids the above challenges, and can further the debate on knowledge-how and skill.

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“…These functional notions of information go beyond the merely statistical, and make explicit what is only implicit in the purely statistical approach. However, they are too involved to discuss in detail hereseeCao (2012),Shea (2014Shea ( , 2018,Shea et al (2017), Mann (2018), and Fresco and Ginsburg (2018 for more philosophical perspectives on this issue.New Labels for Old Ideas: Predictive Processing and the...…”

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confidence: 99%

New Labels for Old Ideas: Predictive Processing and the Interpretation of Neural Signals

Cao

2020

Rev.Phil.Psych.

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Philosophical proponents of predictive processing cast the novelty of predictive models of perception in terms of differences in the functional role and information content of neural signals. However, they fail to provide constraints on how the crucial semantic mapping from signals to their informational contents is determined. Beyond a novel interpretative gloss on neural signals, they have little new to say about the causal structure of the system, or even what statistical information is carried by the signals.That means that the predictive framework for perception can be relabeled in traditional, non-predictive terms, with no empirical consequences relevant to existing or future data. To the extent that neuroscientific research based on predictive processing is both innovative and productive, it will be due to the framework's suggestive heuristic effects, or perhaps auxiliary empirical claims about implementation, rather than a difference in the information-processing structure that it describes.

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Consequences of a Functional Account of Information

Cited by 8 publications

References 52 publications

Information in Explaining Cognition: How to Evaluate It?

Information in Explaining Cognition: How to Evaluate It?

The Role of Information in Knowledge-How

New Labels for Old Ideas: Predictive Processing and the Interpretation of Neural Signals

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